A war that lasted far longer and was more costly than Americans were told to expect by their military and political leaders has led to much public questioning as well as private soul-searching.
Protesters chant slogans against Iraq's Shiite-led government as they wave national flags during a demonstration in Ramadi, Iraq, in January. This week marks the 10-year anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Khalid Mohammed/AP
EnlargeThis week marks the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq ? a war that lasted far longer and was more costly than Americans were told to expect by their military and political leaders, a war that has led to much public questioning as well as private soul-searching.
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It?s clear that a decade of war has led to changed attitudes.
At the conclusion of the Conservative Political Action Conference this weekend, there was a presidential straw poll. But conservative activists also were asked about the US role in the world, and the response was clear: only 34 percent said the US should adopt a more muscular role; 50 percent said the US should pull back, leaving it more to allies to take care of trouble spots.
Those results are similar to other recent polls taken of the general populace regarding whether the Iraq War was worth the effort and cost. By about two-to-one, Americans today answer ?no.?
It will take years before the total costs are tallied. For one thing, thousands of combat veterans will require long-term treatment and disability benefits related to the conflict?s signature injuries: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
But a new report by Brown University scholars gives some indication of the financial and human toll.
Among the findings:
? More than 70 percent of those who died of direct war violence in Iraq have been civilians ? an estimated 134,000. This number does not account for indirect deaths due to increased vulnerability to disease or injury as a result of war-degraded conditions. That number is estimated to be several times higher.
? The Iraq War will ultimately cost US taxpayers at least $2.2 trillion. Because the Iraq war appropriations were funded by borrowing, cumulative interest through 2053 could amount to more than $3.9 trillion.
? The $2.2 trillion figure includes care for veterans who were injured in the war in Iraq, which will cost the United States almost $500 billion through 2053.
? The total of US service members killed in Iraq is 4,488. At least 3,400 US contractors have died as well, a number often under-reported.
? Terrorism in Iraq increased dramatically as a result of the invasion and tactics and fighters were exported to Syria and other neighboring countries.
? Iraq?s health care infrastructure remains devastated from sanctions and war. More than half of Iraq?s medical doctors left the country during the 2000s, and tens of thousands of Iraqi patients are forced to seek health care outside the country.
? The $60 billion spent on reconstruction for Iraq has not gone to rebuilding infrastructure such as roads, health care, and water treatment systems, but primarily to the military and police. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has found massive fraud, waste, and abuse of reconstruction funds.
?Nearly every government that goes to war underestimates its duration, neglects to tally all the costs, and overestimates the political objectives that will be accomplished by war?s violence,? said Neta C. Crawford, professor of political science at Boston University and co-director of the "Costs of War" project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies.?
Meanwhile, although anti-war protesters no longer demonstrate in this country, the inevitable debate over the war continues.
In a new Showtime documentary ?The World According To Dick Cheney,? the former vice president says ?If I had to do it over again, I?d do it in a minute.?
No doubts for Mr. Cheney now ? as others have ? based on what?s known about Saddam Hussein?s nonexistent stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or the Iraqi dictator?s questionable ties to Al Qaeda, the terrorist organization led by Osama bin Laden and responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killing nearly 3,000 people.
Other senior officials in the administration of George W. Bush are not so adamant.
Regarding the elusive WMD, Bush administration national security advisor Stephen Hadley told NPR over the weekend: "Republicans thought [Hussein] had them, Democrats thought he had them, the Clinton administration thought he had them, the Bush administration thought he had them.?
"We were all wrong,? he says.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/IAqftl-uGlE/Iraq-War-10-years-later-was-it-worth-it
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